New Selecting a Japanese Textbook

From WagaWiki

I'm going to heavily edit the old Textbook page. This page is my working page. I've been wanting to do this ever since I began to realize that some of my preconceptions I had when I wrote the other page were in error.

One of the first questions a potential Japanese student asks is, "What is the best Japanese textbook to get?" After much trial and error and also watching the experiences of others, the answer to this all-important question is: "all of them." Unfortunately, an average search will usually not reveal many of these good books, so the purpose of this guide is as much to bring some of these titles out into the light, as it is act as a reference.

Each textbook meets different goals in differing orders, but the final result for nearly all is a student that can speak--if not read--Japanese well. It is important to not waste time looking for a better textbook once you've already started. Persevere and study daily and you will be learn Japanese well.

Contents

Know your goals first

Learning a new language is about goals before anything else. Why are you studying Japanese? If you know your goals, then you can select a book that caters more effectively toward those goals.

The first thing you have to decide is speed. The sooner you need to learn the greater the sacrifice you need to make somewhere else. So a diplomat may be happy with a spoken course, while someone that just wants to read manga will be happy with a written course. In terms of speed we can rate the courses from fastest to slowest.

Travel Guide

Primer

Spoken only

Written only

Both spoken and written

For example, a spoken course does not need to worry about learning Kanji which adds a significant amount of time to learning Japanese. Likewise, a written course has no need for pronunciation or speed drills. The longest route is learning to be good at both. Still, there is some room for variety. A course emphasizing literacy might emphasize reading (passive recall) but not writing (active recall).

Primers are great for the tourist that wants get more out of their tour guide or a thrifty parent of a child that wants to learn Japanese. They give a smattering of everything but are weak on vocabulary and like travel guides often have no audio component. Because the primer is much cheaper than a full course, it can be used as a gauge of the child's discipline. If the child is able to complete the primer, then the parent might more seriously consider buying a full blown course.

Travel guides are written for the clueless tourist and can generally get someone by provided they spend a week or two learning the format of the book. They are often a source of aggravation for all parties. They also contain a lot of categorized vocabulary, so an intermediate student or upper beginner might find them useful as a study guide.

Know the format before buying

I highly recommend examining any course before buying it. Even though I try to recommend courses that are well layed out and are paced in a way that is easy to stay motivated, it might not work for you. It is a bad sign when the page layout incites a headache, so make sure you like the format and pace before buying.

Also, this list will now attempt to cover all media formats. Software, audio only, and web site courses as I see them will be added to the list.

Best Highlights

To save some trouble this list is for those who want a quick answer. Most courses are rated on quality not speed. I do plan to make a note of any courses that seem emphasize speed. Please realize that these "Best" courses are rated extremely subjectively. If something is not on here, that doesn't necessarily mean it is bad. Hopefully, after reading this page, will know enough to judge whether a given course fills your needs by yourself. If you don't see the book you want here, check out the complete Japanese Textbook list.

Travel Guides

Primers

Colloquial Japanese. This can be bought as the book alone or the book and audio can be bought together as a package. Great for someone going to Japan in the near future or that wants a good overview of the language before starting a more intensive course. This moves at a fast pace but does not overload the student with vocabulary. Also, the vocabulary builds on each previous chapter very well. Unfortunately, there are a relatively large number of typos throughout the book that the student will need to keep their eyes out for, however, they all seemed rather obvious because the parallel text will not match.

Spoken Only

Written Only

Best Plain Technical Textbook:

An Introduction to Modern Japanese (Bowring & Laurie). This is an extremely detailed 52 Lesson course that has the stated goal of enabling the student to read--with only a dictionary for reference-- short stories by the half-way point and newspapers by the end. It comes with a workbook, essential for taking full advantage of this course, and emphasizes the subtleties of _written_ Japanese. Thus, making this course is best for the student with the primary goal of Japanese literacy over spoken fluency. It covers more Kanji than any other known course and gives detailed explanations of each grammar point but does not have audio, so it is not appropriate for students with a primary interest in speaking Japanese.

Spoken and Written

Best Comprehensive Technical Course:

Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese. This is a 2-book course with a strong following. Each book has an accompanying workbook and audio. It is one of the more expensive courses but worth the money. However, this is not so much better than Nakama that you should ignore a good deal if you find it.

Best non-comprehensive Technical Course:

Elementary Japanese. Also a two book series, it has the advantage of an audio CD that does not need to be ordered separately and has lots of exercises although it does not have an accompanying workbook. Japanese for Everyone is equally good, maybe better, but I rank it lower because it teaches at a faster pace to make up for it's 1 book length and the audio must be purchased separately--and seems difficult to acquire. This faster pace can be too much for many people, although the pace did not seem to be extraordinarily fast. I'm sure many will find the pace perfect.